Sonic Similarity fails to load, decoding utf-8

[paularmstrong]

Before you begin

• I have searched the open and closed issues and this hasn't been reported yet.
• I have read the troubleshooting guide and it did not solve my problem.
• I am running a supported installation (Home Assistant add-on or Docker container).

What happened?

2026-09-05 09:48:34.151 DEBUG (MainThread) [music_assistant.sonic_similarity] Log level configured to DEBUG
2026-09-05 09:48:34.430 INFO (MainThread) [music_assistant.sonic_similarity] Sonic Similarity initializing, building search index...
2026-09-05 09:48:38.182 WARNING (MainThread) [music_assistant.webserver] config/providers/save: Failed to build Traits search index: Could not decode to UTF-8 column 'analysis_data' with text '{"duration":126.0,"loudness_integrated":-16.44005012512207,"loudness_album":null,"loudness_range":15.03024959564209,"true_peak":-0.0887206

How to reproduce

unsure. it just stopped working while it was before

Music Assistant version

2.10.2

How do you run Music Assistant?

Home Assistant add-on

Diagnostics report or log file

music-assistant-diagnostics-2026-09-05-164919.json

Anything else?

No response

[musicassistant-bot]

Hi, and thanks for taking the time to report this! 🙏

Version: 2.10.2 · Install: HA add-on · Python: 3.14.7 · Platform: Linux-6.18.39-haos-x86_64-with-glibc2.41 · Players: 13

Here's what I found in the attached diagnostics:

🔴 1 provider(s) in an error state

The following configured providers are enabled but not working:

• sonic_similarity (sonic_similarity): Failed to build Traits search index: Could not decode to UTF-8 column 'analysis_data' with text '{"duration":126.0,"loudness_integrated":-16.44005012512207,"loudness_album":null,"loudness_range":15.03024959564209,"true_peak":-0.0887206

🟠 Captured exceptions

The diagnostics captured these recurring errors, most frequent first:

• SetupFailedError ×1 — music_assistant/providers/sonic_similarity/provider.py:319 in handle_async_init: Error loading provider(instance) sonic_similarity: Failed to build Traits search index: Could not decode to UTF-8 column 'analysis_data' with text '{"duration":126.0,"loudness_integrated":-16.44005012512207,"loudness_album":null,"loudness_range":15.03024959564209,"true_peak":-0.0887206

🤖 AI assessment — possible root cause (for maintainers; may be wrong)

Sonic Similarity provider fails to initialize on HA add-on v2.10.2 because rebuilding the USearch search index hits a SQLite row whose 'analysis_data' column cannot be decoded as UTF-8, raising an error inside iter_rows_from_query and aborting handle_async_init.

Likely cause: A previously stored analysis_data value in the audio_analysis table appears to contain non-UTF-8 bytes (or was corrupted/truncated), so the database read in audio_analysis.py's iter_rows_from_query / helpers/database.py execute_fetchall fails to decode that row when Traits search index rebuild queries it, causing the whole provider load to abort rather than skipping the bad row.

Evidence considered:

• Traceback: provider.py handle_async_init -> _rebuild_search_index -> _rebuild_search_index_locked -> audio_analysis.py:856 iter_rows_from_query -> database.py:299-300 execute_fetchall raising 'Could not decode to UTF-8 column analysis_data'
• music_assistant/controllers/streams/audio_analysis.py L852-858: query iterates analysis rows ordered by item_id/provider/timestamp_created, feeding raw stored analysis_data text into the decode path that fails
• music_assistant/helpers/database.py L299-300: execute_fetchall is the point where the sqlite driver attempts UTF-8 decoding of column text and raises when it can't
• Diagnostics PROVIDERS_IN_ERROR/TOP_EXCEPTIONS: single SetupFailedError from sonic_similarity, error text truncated mid-JSON at 'true_peak':-0.0887206, consistent with a corrupted/partial analysis_data value rather than a missing dependency

Maintainer next step: Have the reporter (or a maintainer with DB access) run a query against the local Music Assistant sqlite database to locate the offending analysis_data row (e.g. by scanning audio_analysis rows for non-UTF-8 bytes) and inspect its raw bytes; then decide whether to add a decode-error guard/row-skip in iter_rows_from_query (helpers/database.py) or a data-repair migration, and confirm whether this can be reproduced by writing a similarly malformed analysis_data value.

category: bug · confidence: 55%

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🤖 I'm an AI-powered triage assistant. I can make mistakes, and a human maintainer will still review this issue. This automation helps the small Music Assistant team keep up with the high volume of reports on this open-source project — thanks for your patience and for helping us help you!

[OzGav]

@chrisuthe

[MarvinSchenkel]

This looks like a corrupted data row in your database. Did you have any unclean shutdowns of your MA host, e.g. due to a power outage?